Sepang blue pearl Audi A3 s-line new car detail

JAMES VTI S

This beautiful sepang blue pearl Audi A3 s-line came to me for a basic protection detail with stone chip repair. Being a new car it was in good shape but not perfect, three or four stone chips were dotted around the car, there was some plastic transfer marks on the booth lid and for a new car the paintwork was dull. All the above was fixed and the Lukaz was delighted.

JAMES VTI S

This is a write up on the process, i hope you enjoy!
First thing as always is to remove the bulk of the dirt and road grime, this lessens the chance of inflicting swirl marks in the hand wash stage.


Because this car is pretty dirty and hasn't been washed in a while I used a traffic film remover on the lower half of the car and in around the door and booth shuts, these areas are always the direst.



After letting the traffic film remover work on the dirt and grime for a couple of minutes I pressure rinsed the whole exterior.



The hard to reach areas were cleaned with a soft bristle brush and a mild all purpose cleaner.







Next the exterior got a hot hand wash

Now the exterior was clean and free from dirt and road grime I concentrated on removing any bonded and embedded contamination. First the lower half was dried and a bodywork solvent was used to remove any tar deposits after that I tackled the embedded iron contamination. Here I sprayed on a pH neutral fallout remover, this product turns purple on contact with metal. The metal deposits come off the braking system which is very hot and these metal partials then stick to the paint. Metal fallout can also come from when the car is being transported from the factory via train.

JAMES VTI S

The final part of the contamination removal process is to address any remaining bonded contamination and this is done by a hot, clay towel wash. Think of a hot towel shave but instead of a blade I use a clay/rubber towel to gently remove anything stuck on the paint leaving behind a super smooth clean surface.





Next I cleaned the wheels and tyres, again the same pH neutral fallout remover was used on the wheels as on the paint and a hard bristle brush with strong all purpose cleaner to remove grime from the tyres.





Final part of the wet work was to dry the exterior using a soft microfiber towel.



With the paint dried I moved the car into the garage where I noticed some plastic transfer marks which most likely happened while the car was being washed with a brush, I removed these with a solvent and soft cloth.



With about two hours of washing and cleaning down the car looked very (eeerrrmmm) clean, but this was not good enough as there would still be remaining residue on the exterior from the previous stages. Here I used a pre-wax cleaner to lightly polish and cleanse the paint it was also applied to the exterior glass and wheels.

Finally I touched up any stone chips with the correct OEM Volkswagen paint (LY5Q/E9) and as seen in the last clip of the above video I applied a high quality PTFE carnauba wax to protect the paintwork through the winter until the car returns again in the spring for the same treatment.
A quick walk around showing the level of gloss and colour enrichment achieved.

Thanks for looking!

bazz26

Fabulous work James.

JAMES VTI S

Thanks bazz :-D

Curran

:eek: Was that a 1 Bucket Wash :P

Nice work! Great colour!

JAMES VTI S

I rearly use two buckets TBH. On the occasion the paintwork is swirl free or in a state that requires it then yes but 90% of the time it's a good solid rinse and one bucket method (excluding wheels).

Thanks.

D0NNELLY

How much?

easygoing39

What make of clay towel did you use?? And is a quick detail spray needed as a lube or does the hot water do the same thing??
That Audi looked very nice at the end,lovely colour.

JAMES VTI S

Liquid elements clay towel. Most of the time hot water and a helping of shampoo is good enough some paints can be sticky so I use a rinsless wash solution diluted for clay lubrication in that case. Haven't used real clay in years as I find it a lot slower, i really miss being able to see what comes off and kneading it was very satisfying also.